Binding: Paperback
Description: " For anyone who wants to learn about the rise and decline of Potos as a city Lane's book is the ideal place to begin." The New York Review of Books In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world's greatest silver bonanza making the Cerro Rico or " Rich Hill" and the Imperial Villa of Potos instant legends famous from Istanbul to Beijing. The Cerro Rico alone provided over half of the world's silver for a century and even in decline it remained the single richest source on earth. Potos is the first interpretive history of the fabled mining city's rise and fall. It tells the story of global economic transformation and the environmental and social impact of rampant colonial exploitation from Potos's startling emergence in the sixteenth century to its collapse in the nineteenth. Throughout Kris Lane's invigorating narrative offers rare details of this thriving city and its promise of prosperity. A new world of native workers market women African slaves and other ordinary residents who lived alongside the elite merchants refinery owners wealthy widows and crown officials emerge in lively riveting stories from the original sources. An engrossing depiction of excess and devastation Potos reveals the relentless human tradition in boom times and bust.
Title: Potosi The Silver City That Changed The World
Author(s): Lane Kris
Publisher: University Of California Press
Barcode: 9780520383357
Pages: 272 Pages, 25 Bw Photos, 5 Maps, 4 Line A
Publication Date: 3/16/2021
Series: California World History Library
Category: History Of The Americas